


the proposal

by bluebeholder



Series: the accidental epic [41]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Critical Contraception Failure, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Unplanned Pregnancy, use protection kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 18:13:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14338212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebeholder/pseuds/bluebeholder
Summary: While wrangling a wayward Catoblepas, Tina gets a face full of poison. In the process of saving her life, she and Newt discover that there's a little more going on than they expected.Looks like it's going to be a shotgun wedding after all.





	the proposal

**Author's Note:**

> *slides in* 
> 
> Hey, guess who got her writing mojo back...enjoy! Notes below.

This was supposed to be a routine relocation of a wandering Catoblepas. It’s something that apparently they’ve done dozens of times before. The resident creature expert in Ethiopia, a brilliant woman named Gadise, told Newt he should come along, just because he was there and another pair of hands was always welcome. So Tina came along too.

Unfortunately, Tina managed to turn up exactly where she shouldn’t have been, and got a face full of Catoblepas poison.

“Tina, Tina, keep talking to me,” Newt says, in his calm talking-to-the-Nundu voice. “I need you to look at me, dear.”

She does her best. “I…don’t feel so good…”

They’ve got her laid out on the ground, a safe distance from the Catoblepas and the Aurors trying to corral it. Kabede, the healer, is working on Tina—she can feel the sparks of magic in her veins—trying to purge the poison from her body. But something’s wrong, she knows that even through the daze. This shouldn’t take so long.

“Scamander!” Kabede says sharply. “I can’t purge it all, I can only hold her stable. Figure out what’s blocking the magic!”

Newt kisses Tina’s forehead. “Stay awake,” he says, and vanishes from her view.

Tina stares at the sky. It’s swirling oddly, the blue shifting in a nauseating way. She feels Kabede’s hands on her side and ribs, the tip of Newt’s wand pressing into her belly. Off in the distance the lead Auror is shouting commands, her voice clear and words scrambled. Newt and Kabede are having a very fast, almost panicked discussion, and then Tina feels Newt’s wand touch her forehead. He says an incantation and—

—Tina wakes up staring at a thatched ceiling.

She blinks a few times.  

If she really did get poisoned, she feels remarkably fine.

A little cautiously, Tina sits up. She’s lying on a cot, no blanket, with the majority of her clothes folded neatly beside her. Newt, perched on a chair and writing in his notebook, throws it aside and bolts to kneel beside the cot. He doesn’t say a word, just pulls her into a gentle hug.

“I’m not dead, Newt,” Tina says into his shoulder. The angle is awkward, but she will always feel safe with Newt.

“You almost were,” he says, a little muffled. “Kabede is a medical _genius_ , I tell you…he plans to found a medical college and hospital and forget St. Mungo’s, we’ll only ever come here…”

“How bad _was_ it?”

Newt draws back and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “The poison wasn’t bad on its own, not when we had a competent Healer. But…something blocked the purging spells…and…”

“Spit it out,” Tina says, a little sharp. She’s suddenly nervous, despite Newt’s reassuring hands holding hers. “What was blocking it?”

“Tina…when we started running diagnostic spells…” Newt pauses. His hands are trembling. “I found something unexpected. You’re four weeks pregnant.”

The world tilts. “ _What_?”

“The baby looks healthy, from what we can tell,” Newt says, words tumbling out. “In fine shape—just as it should be, we can’t say if it’s a boy or girl yet, but healthy and right where it ought to be—I’m sure it wasn’t affected by the poison—”

“I’m _pregnant_ ,” Tina repeats, astonished. “But I’m up to date on contraception charms!”

Newt pauses. “There was that incident,” he says delicately, “when we couldn’t remember if you used them or not. About a month ago.”

Tina lies back and stares at the ceiling. “So I didn’t use them.”

“Apparently not.”

There’s a drawn-out moment of silence.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well…” Newt says, and there’s the sound of fumbling about. Tina turns over to look at him, and realizes he’s pulling something out of his pocket. “I’ve rather been dithering about this, because I didn’t know if you’d be interested, but Tina, I’d be honored if you’d consider marrying me. Properly.”

He’s got a ring in his hands. And he’s meeting her eyes, open and scared, and Tina can’t imagine how she would ever say no. “Of course I will,” she says, a little choked. “Of course I will.”

The kiss is a _relief_. Newt slides the engagement ring on her finger, and then climbs onto the cot next to her so they can hold each other properly.

“Why wouldn’t I be interested?” Tina asks. “We’ve gone around the world three times—what did you think of me?”

“Marriage is different,” Newt says. He sounds awkward again. “It’s a very permanent thing.”

“I’m fine with permanent,” Tina says softly. She bites her lip. “I think it’s very typical of us both that you waited for me to accidentally forget a contraception charm to actually make a decision, though.”

Newt winces. “My timing could have been better.”

“It could have been.”

“Do you mind…?”

“Of course not.”

Tina quite contentedly cuddles her—oh, her _fiancé_ —for a while. Finally, she asks, “What on earth do we actually do, though? Should we go to London, do you think? Call a family council?”

“I don’t think so, not yet,” Newt says. His voice takes on the lecture tone. How many creatures has Newt helped through this same process? They might not be people, but Tina suddenly feels a little surge of relief. The things he doesn’t know, they’ll figure out together. And Newt’s a thorough man, in matters of science. Which this is. “You’re barely a tenth of the way into a normal pregnancy and you’re not showing at all. Your body won’t really start to change for another, oh, two months or so. And even then there’s plenty of time.”

“I refuse to be stuck in bed for half of this,” Tina says. She pokes Newt lightly in the ribs.

He shakes his head. “I wouldn’t even try, Tina.”

Tina sighs with contentment. “Thank you,” she says. “And what happened to the Catoblepas?”

“Oh, they caught it,” Newt says. “Gadise is good at her job, they didn’t need me at all. Though that is the reason we won’t be staying long.”

“I thought you wanted to stick around and do some population surveys?”

“Gadise got my permit suspended,” Newt says sheepishly. “As soon as you’re fit to walk, we’re to go back to Addis Ababa and Portkey to Egypt.”

“That’s fine,” Tina says. “We should decide what we’re going to do.”

Newt squeezes her hand. “We don’t have to go immediately,” he says. “The Muggles are crowning their new Emperor in a week or so, and the celebration promises to be splendid. There are important Muggles coming in from all over the world, and I hear that the magical community will be holding its own celebrations too. We might as well stay, right?”

Tina smiles. “Right,” she says. She feels like a festival atmosphere is suitable, really. She and Newt are getting married. They’re going to have a _baby_. The word “happy” doesn’t cover it.

“Joy” does.

**Author's Note:**

> Naming complications…Ethiopia is a weird one. At the time this story is set, most Europeans still used “Abyssinia,” but Ethiopians didn’t. Then, there are two different etymological claims of where the name comes from. Some hold that it was the Greeks who came up with it; some hold that it was the Ethiopians who did. All told, I went with what Ethiopians were saying, and assumed that Newt and Tina are exceptional people of their time who would try to use the phrasing of the people around them.
> 
> Catoblepas: not exactly local creatures. Pliny the Elder (who is a totally reliable source of information on creatures, really, of course, I’m not sarcastic at all) described them. They have the bodies of buffalo with strangely long necks and heads that point down. The breath is poisonous, instant death, or petrifying, depending on your source. 
> 
> Emperor Haile Selassie I was crowned on November 2, 1930. It was an *extravagant* affair; it was filmed by a journalist, and the footage exists online. Definitely check it out.


End file.
